I mean REALLY? Every post has to have a title? I would title it "Post entry no. whatever, but I'm sure if I began numbering them I'd screw up somewhere along the line and there would eventually be 8 number tens.

Busy summer spot of late. Went to my high school reunion back in PA. Nice to see that all us fucked up kids we all were in high school managed to grow up and be fucked up adults. Kidding. I realized I have never matured. Everyone had kids and was concerned with all the things in the world out there that might corrupt their kids as they go out in the world. I have no kids. Having kids is like the longest set up to some crazy game you never realized you were in. Create this little person . Grow them and try to instill some knowledge to prepare them for a world where you won't be to protect them. Then, shoot them out there after 18 to 22 years of prep!  See what happens. I've played a few really long Monopoly games but they've never gone more than a few hours.

I had a great time making friends with people I should have known a long time ago but just had to wait until now. Some I remembered a bit but most I hadn't thought about since I got my diploma.

Anyway, here's some stuff I've been doing...

I share a studio with the famous, Molly Crabapple. She had these nice inks (Ecoline) laying around so I snagged a bottle of the blue and tried it out. I was working in my Canson sketch pad so the paper wasn't the thickest. It held up well enough with the pen nib I was using. I also splashed a little watercolor graphite "Art Graf" over the Dr Martin matte ink I like to use. I touched it up a little with white gouache. Holbein gouache, since I seem to be name dropping so much in this post. Sheesh!

This is what my paintings look like as I develop them. Sometimes I will have a phrase that comes to mind as I'm drawing and I will think that is the title. Then as I refine the image the title might not work for me and then it becomes something new. I'm not sure if I'll even paint any of these!

See? This one started as one thing in my head but once I scanned it, it now seems like I need to make an irregular shape for it. Like it needs to be taller than it is already.

I was drawing some of these in a bar and some in a coffee shop with my friend Travis. He did some really cool sketches in my spare sketch pad. I'll post them after I make sure he's OK with it.

I am usually aware that tubes and holes etc can be symbols of eroticism but this group has been a little more obvious. As a professional artist, I treat my models as valued private contractors. I don't make comments other than "you look over heated, can I get you some water or something to drink?". It's summer time and the humidity is a beast sometimes. And then there are the ambitious types that think nothing of running up 6 or more floors to my place instead of taking the elevator. My building has extra high ceilings on most of the floors! I try to make my models comfortable, and I respect them and what they do, so when I want to be more conscious of the erotic possibilities of the pose, I error to the side  of professionalism. After they leave I draw from my drawings or photos they've let me take. This keeps me a little more detached from the erotic nature of the poses and my models.

Doing some drawing in a bar with some scotch.  A young lady coming back to surprise her boyfriend found him making out with her bast friend at the bar. And I thought the fourth of July fireworks were over. I didn't quite hear all the words but I got the gist plus the body language was obvious. Earlier I had looked up for the score of the Yankee game on the TV and noticed he had been making out with the lady who was now in scorched earth mode. But I also saw him getting pretty close to the other girl when she was there so I just thought they were all on the same page. The girls were both attractive and I was mentally giving him the "high five" and also "it's your headache dude" at the same time. It had zero influence on whet I was drawing, but it was an amusing sideshow to my thoughts. I didn't see any physical violence, so at least everyone was an adult about it.

Pencil and ink on paper.  This is the first idea with this pose. The back ground was inspired by a photo I took of a metal panel in the subway. White tiles, metal panel imbedded in the tile and some black ooze that was probably once hot liquid black stuff that was now cooled after leaking out of the bottom of the panel over the tile and pooled on the cement floor in front. Imagining if this was in a nice suburban mall it would have been scrubbed clean after whatever was inside got fixed. Not in the New York City subway! Fix the wires and ignore the residue, maybe it'll evaporate? Whatever the reason for not cleaning it up I like that it is there. It ads texture to the background of everyday life. It's unique and it wasn't smelly, just another layer of background. I guess nothing is wrong since the lights still work and the trains still stop.

Sketches and more sketches. I need to hire some models again now that I'm finally discovering the poses I think will work for the images I want to do. I have been using the Canson paper in their multi media sketch pads and they've been holding up pretty well. better than the Moleskine that's for sure.

Gouache study on Canson paper. I treated the gouache more like a water color since I'm not ripping them out of the sketchpad just yet. I thought the paint should stay very thin to keep the paper flexible so the pad can be flipped through. I pushed the full range of values in Photo Shop here. I want to create the perception in these paintings that there is no solid earth to stand on. The tubes and other objects exist with the assumed understanding that they are anchored to something.

This one is still developing. I drew it out on to a panel to paint but now I'm not happy with the image. I may have the model back to do more specific poses for it. Also on this piece I'm going to experiment with putting things in front of the figure to help place it more within the environment.

I'm experimenting with this graphite cake stuff I found at New York Central. It's similar to a cake of watercolor that you can wet with a brush and use on the paper. The graphite works the same way. You can rework it with more water and almost erase it like pencil. I added a little white gouache to it as well. I used a dip pen and Dr Martin matte black ink. The paper starts to bleed a little if you try the ink over the graphite so best to get all the drawing in ink done first!

Explanations. I stumbled across some older files and here they are. They were done at a comic book convention while I was hanging out with my buddy Mark Texiera (TEX) to those that know his work. He's quite popular at the cons so I just sit back and doodle and draw small commissions he can't get to. Usually it all goes to liquor and pizza anyway. Helping out that economy!

Similar pose but with a female.

I was experimenting with various characters and trying to draw impossible positions. Ink on paper. The one below is along the same idea. It reminded me of Kurt Cobain.

I liked this little sketch and decided to throw some color on it in Photo Shop.